My API Freshwater Master Kit came today. That mixed with boredom = experiment time! I discovered that my tap water has a pH of 8. I read somewhere on here that it isn't necessary to use pH up or down with Betta fish because they can adapt. I wasn't really expecting our water to be so alkaline though. Is 8.0 fine for a Betta? I tested our filtered water and it has a pH of 6.4. I read that tap water should be used over any other water though. Thoughts?

Also, I got Prime water conditioner and the directions say to use 1 capful (5mL) for each 50 gallons. So this means .5mL for every 5 gallons (size of my tank), correct? This seems like such a small amount and I'm tempted to add more! Yes or no?

Are you sure that's Prime? Well, I have a smaller bottle, and it goes by drops. (2 drops per gallon). So imagine 10 drops for a 5 gallon. It is a pretty small amount, so I'd imagine it to be corrrect. Not sure if 10 drops is .5mL, but I can definitely imagine it.

pH isn't the biggest concern with bettas, they can definitely adapt easily to that. It doesn't seem to affect their health at all. IMO I'd stick with the tap water, but you could use the filtered if you prefer to.

Yes, it's definitely Prime. I mean it says Prime on the bottle and Seachem and it's red and everything . It sounds like it would only be a few drops, so yeah, it must be right. It just seems so tiny for the amount of water!

Thanks, I didn't really want to be adjusting the pH all the time anyway.

You're right, it's 1ml per 10 gallons or .5ml per 5 gallons. Did you get the big bottle? I found a pet syringe I had around the house and used that but I'd read that if you get the smaller bottle, it has a dropper lid and advises you to use two drops per gallon. You can just refill it with your big bottle. MUCH easier.

Don't worry about the ph. Your fish will adapt. But when you bring new fish home make sure you ask your store what their ph is. If there's a big shift you might want to acclimate them to your water using the drip method. You can google it.

I actually got the medium bottle. I saw the small and large one and decided to go for the one in the middle. I didn't read the directions in the store. I suppose if I had, I might have gone with the smallest one since this bottle will probably last my whole life (unless I become obsessed with fish and have tanks all over the house and everything, heh). I have a few pipettes with .25mL, .5mL, .75mL and 1mL markings. So I'm going by the mL amount, not however many drops.

I will test the pH of Betta's container myself and decide from there how to acclimate it. Drip method sounds interesting.

When you test your tap water pH, you need to let it degas for 24h with an air stone to get an accurate reading...this is why sometime you will see a difference in pH from tap and your tank...
I would stay with the tap water for the betta, the mineral in it are important for their health and 8 is not that bad and I suspect it will lower once it degases too.